Request By:
Hon. Elmer Cunnagin, Jr.
Laurel County Attorney
Courthouse
London, Kentucky 40741
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Asst. Deputy Attorney General
A problem has arisen in your county concerning the operating of places of entertainment, as described in KRS 231.020.
A Kentucky State Trooper has requested that you obtain an opinion of this office as to a state trooper's authority to investigate places of entertainment to determine whether or not they have obtained a permit to operate.
KRS 231.130 reads:
"The sheriff, deputy sheriff and county patrolmen of each county shall visit places of entertainment regularly. Upon their observing any violation of this chapter, by the owner or manager, they shall make arrests without warrants for violations committed within their presence."
Question:
"Advise me whether or not, in your opinion, a Kentucky State Trooper has authority to investigate and issue citations for noncompliance with KRS 231.130."
A place of entertainment is defined by KRS 231.010. No place of entertainment can be operated outside the corporate limits of a city unless its owner or manager has a permit, issued to him by the County Judge Executive in the county in which the place of entertainment is located, granting him the privilege to operate the place. See KRS 231.020.
The penalty for failing to have a permit is indicated in KRS 231.990(1).
The statute, KRS 231.130, on its literal face, permits only the sheriff, his deputies, and county patrolmen to visit places of entertainment for law enforcement purposes. It does not include state troopers. While a state trooper is a peace officer [see KRS 446.010(24)], KRS 231.130 is not geared to "peace officers" in the sense of that general definition.
However, KRS 16.060, relating to the power of the state police, expressly provides:
"It shall be the duty of the commissioner and each officer of the bureau to detect and prevent crime, apprehend criminals, maintain law and order throughout the state, to collect, classify and maintain information useful for the detection of crime and the identification, apprehension and conviction of criminals and to enforce the criminal, as well as the motor vehicle and traffic laws of the Commonwealth. To this end the commissioner and each officer of the bureau is individually vested with the powers of a peace officer and shall have in all parts of the state the same powers with respect to criminal matters and enforcement of the laws relating thereto as sheriffs, constables and police officers in their respective jurisdictions, and shall possess all the immunities and matters of defense now available or hereafter made available to sheriffs, constables and police officers in any suit brought against them in consequence of acts done in the course of their employment. Any warrant of arrest may be executed by the commissioner or any officer of the bureau. "
In reading KRS 231.130 and 16.060 together, it is our opinion that a state trooper has the authority to visit a place of entertainment in order to determine whether or not the owner or manager has a permit to operate and whether there is any other observable violation of KRS Chapter 231. KRS 16.060 explicitly provides that a state trooper shall have in all parts of the state, for general criminal law enforcement purposes, the powers which sheriffs and police officers have in their respective jurisdictions. In this connection, the state trooper is a police officer with the equivalent authority of the county sheriff and county police. See Parrott v. Commonwealth, Ky., 408, S.W.2d 614 (1966) 615.